Charles Moore

Charles Moore was editor of The Spectator 1984 - 1990. He continues to write a weekly column, The Spectator's Notes. You can read extracts of his column here.

Why is Microsoft offended by ‘Mrs Thatcher’?

18 December 2021 9:00 am

The interregnum between incumbents is a well-known and often elongated process in the Church of England. I have recently witnessed…

Lockdown has made poachers bolder – and more dangerous

11 December 2021 9:00 am

One midnight last month, Jon Wiltshire, who lives in a cottage just outside our Sussex village, was woken by a…

Who will be the Democrats’ Gorbachev?

4 December 2021 9:00 am

As this paper has argued since the time of the Tiananmen Square massacres, this country should offer Hong Kong people…

Why are editors sharing a platform with Miqdaad Versi?

29 November 2021 8:20 am

Next week, the Centre for Media Monitoring publishes its report on ‘British Media Coverage of Muslims and Islam 2018-2020’. Its…

Peppa Pig’s conservative values

27 November 2021 9:00 am

I like to think that Boris Johnson’s rambling performance at the CBI this week was a satire against the organisation…

National Trust members fight back

6 November 2021 9:00 am

At the National Trust’s annual general meeting last week, the voting was much more unusual than the public will have…

The cold hard truth about heat pumps

30 October 2021 9:00 am

When I went to Poland not long before Covid, I found a country more bitterly divided by a culture war…

Why the baby doomers are wrong

23 October 2021 9:00 am

Rarely does a piece of journalism bring a tear to my normally cynical eye, but I did find this happening…

In defence of Angela Rayner

2 October 2021 9:00 am

On the one occasion when I spent any time with Angela Rayner, she was funny, direct and friendly. We were…

The legacy of Stephen Toope

25 September 2021 9:00 am

Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, has begun this academic year by announcing it will be his last in the…

Is the world we value falling apart?

4 September 2021 9:00 am

From time to time, people get worried and ask one another: ‘Is the world falling apart?’ I imagine this is…

The BBC exaggerates Britain’s importance in Afghanistan

28 August 2021 9:00 am

This week, the media pressure was on the British government to extend the deadline for the evacuations from Kabul airport.…

It is shabby of Biden to blame the Afghans

21 August 2021 9:00 am

Q. Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable? The President: No, it is not. Q. Why? The President: Because…

Margaret Thatcher vs everyone else: the making of the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement

21 August 2021 9:00 am

Diplomatic negotiations are rarely fully described by their participants in books, for two reasons. They are usually secret until much…

Joe Biden’s shabby treatment of the Afghan army

19 August 2021 12:26 am

Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable? The President: No, it is not. Q. Why? The President: Because you…

What ministers won’t admit about A-levels

14 August 2021 9:00 am

The tale of A-levels shows how ministers can sometimes find themselves in a position when it is simply too dangerous…

Chris Packham’s suggestions to save the world

7 August 2021 9:00 am

On Monday 2 August, the BBC Today programme offered its ‘Countdown to COP26’. For the rest of the month, Amol…

The West’s moralising over climate change will cost India

31 July 2021 9:00 am

On Tuesday, I chaired a session at Policy Exchange addressed by Tony Abbott, the eloquent former prime minister of Australia,…

Let’s hope the Third World prevails at COP26

28 July 2021 4:20 pm

On Tuesday, I chaired a session at Policy Exchange addressed by Tony Abbott, the eloquent former prime minister of Australia,…

What Dominic Cummings gets wrong

24 July 2021 9:00 am

Anyone who thinks Boris Johnson lacks statecraft should pay attention to Dominic Cummings’s attacks on him. They often to seem…

The rise of the robot lawnmower

17 July 2021 9:00 am

A special animus is aimed at Priti Patel, perhaps because the combination of being Indian, female and firmly Tory is…

Should trains have mask and non-mask carriages?

10 July 2021 9:00 am

In deciding whether or not to wear a mask after 19 July, I am sure Boris Johnson is right that…

‘Fear and bullying’ at the National Trust

3 July 2021 9:00 am

Is Winston Marshall — guitarist, banjo player, composer of Mumford & Sons, and father of the west London ‘Nu-Folk’ music…

Why the BBC believed Martin Bashir

19 June 2021 9:00 am

If it is true, as Lords Hall and Birt told a Commons committee this week, that Martin Bashir succeeded in…

Would you pay £80 for a video from John Bercow?

12 June 2021 9:00 am

There is much to be said for meritocracy, and Adrian Wooldridge, in his new book, The Aristocracy of Talent, says…